Monday, December 29, 2014

Once again my goal is to average a book a week. As a retiree, you'd think I have all the time in the world to read! But I have a lot of hobbies!

Jan 15 Life Inside the Bubble (Bongino) Autobio of a former Secret Service agent who ran for the US Senate. Narrated for Bee Audio - my first book for them!
Jan 17 Inside the Third Reich (Speer) The man started as an architect and became an industrialist. If I'd known that, I would have read this decades earlier! Good book!
Jan 21 Auntie Maim (Tish) Narrated at author's request, through ACX. This is a tweens book.
Jan 23 The Last Battle (Harding)
Jan 28 Overdraft: The Orion Offensive (Miller)
Jan 31 Wool (Howey) I can see how this generated so much buzz. A good future dystopia.
Feb 04 Madame Charmaine (Tish) Another of David Tischendorf's Sheldon Beasley series for tweens; narrated though ACX
Feb 06 Leviathan Wakes (Corey) Sci fi thriller
Feb 17 Storm Approaching (Libbey) first of a 4-book series by my old friend, Dr. Brian Libbey, about a mercenary leader in a sword-and-sorcery culture.
Feb 19 Gold and Glory (Libbey) Second in the series
Feb 20 The Path to Hope (Hessell & Morin) Narrated for Bee Audio, this is a liberal tract by two of Europe's most progressive thinkers
Mar 04 Resolution (Libbey) End of the trilogy... which he has expanded since to 4 books!
Mar 13 Chaos Quarter (Welch)
Mar 16 Neptune Crossing (Carver)
Mar 19 Condottiere 1300 - 1500 (Murphy) Libby's Mercenary books got me wondering about his historical models.
Apr 08 Building the Navy's Bases in WWII, Vol. 1 (various) This is a book I read online over a period of months from the Navy's Library. Excellent resource for this information (which is precisely why I read it!)
Apr 11 The Burial of the Guns (Page) Narrated for LV
Apr 15 The Kill Order (Dashner) This is the pre-quel to The Maze Runner
Apr 18 Naval Shipbuilders of the World (Winklereth) This is a reference book, but I read it cover to cover.
Apr 21 The Maze Runner (Dashner) Soon to be a major motion picture
Apr 24 The Man Who Would Be King (Kipling) Narrated for Audiobooks by Mike Vendetti
May 06 Admiral Arleigh Burke (Potter) My copy is autographed by the author, so I had to read it, right?
May 13 The Last Praetorian (Smith) DO NOT READ. THIS IS TRASH.
May 31 Spinward Fringe: Origins (LaLonde) Among the better sci fi books I've read lately
Jun 07 Medieval Sieges and Siegcraft (Hindley) Info is poorly organized, but it's all there
Jun 13 German Armored Trains in WWII (Sawodny) Who knew therre were so many?
Jun 15 The Conquest of the Oceans (Lavery)
Jun 16 Mars Inc. - The Billionaires Club (Bova) I wish our billionaires would do exactly this!!
Jun 27 Shadow of Night (Harkness) second in her trilogy; the third comes out in a few days
Jun 29 Shadow of the Alchemist (Westerson) good medieval crime novel in the Cadfael tradition.
Jun 30 A Texas Ranger (Raine) Narrated for Audiobooks by Mike Vendetti. It was about time to do another Western!
Jul 10 The Night Circus (Morgenstern) Recommended by McKenzie, this is a treasure! Best book of the year (so far, anyway!)
Jul 13 Starfire (Dale Brown) Can anyone keep Dale and Dan Brown separate in their heads?
Jul 26 Dreams of Other Worlds (Impey & Henry) keep the scientist author; kick the English prof
Jul 30 US Amphibious Tactics of WWII (Rottman) For the very special subject covered, the best book I've ever read! Great reference.
Aug 12 Outlander (Gabaldon) Just in time for the series launch on TV. But, I don't get the premium service, so I'll make do with the book.
Aug 20 Super Tanks (Haldeman, ed.) A compilation of tank-themed stories.
Aug 24 The Ship That Died of Shame (Montserrat) A set of short stories from a great maritime storyteller
Aug 29 Annihilation (Vandermees)
Sep 01 Cradle (Clarke & Gentry) this was terrible!
Sep 03 Tank (Wright) I started this years ago, only just finished it. It is one of the most odious nonfiction books ever. The writer was nowhere near his topic.
Sep 08 Spectacular Ireland (Hardison) I really should have read it a year ago, before I went to Ireland! Great photos and really good text.
Sep 15 The Return of the Marines: The Few (Brazee) good!
Sep 24 Sandworms of Dune (Herbert & Anderson) The final book in the series (to date, anyway)
Oct 04 The City at World's End (Hamilton)
Oct 08 The Last Starship (Hueppner) good!
Oct 19 The Day the Martians Came (Pohl)
Oct 21 Three Generations of Shipbuilding (Newport News Shipyard)
Oct 22 The Spy (Cussler)
Nov 03 Blood & Iron (Pournelle, ed.) I read this before, around 1979, I think.
Nov 10 Superluminal (MacIntyre) good!
Nov 22 Castles From the Air (Brown) a crashing bore, from a professor of Norman history
Nov 26 Nimitz Class (Robinson) good!
Dec 01 Kilo Class (Robinson) good!
Dec 07 The Miners (Time-Life) Surprisingly engaging; well-written history
Dec 17 The Metalsmiths (Time-Life)
Dec 22 Eye of the Cat (Zelazny) As a Zelazny fan, I was disappointed in this one